Thursday, January 29, 2015

Weird Facts Thursday III

Woot, that's right kids, it's time for another edition of weird facts!

- The British Philosopher and Occultist, Dr. John Dee served as Elizabeth I's royal adviser and undertook several secret missions on foreign soil for the queen under the codename 007. In 2011 I began a new English translation of Dee's masterwork Monas Hieroglyphica from the original Latin. The work deals with Monads, or basically the holopgraphic particles that make up the universe. In the simplest possible terms Dee describes these universal particles as electrically charged vortices around singularities. One day, I'll finish it.

- I just started reading Rupert Shelldrake's The Science Delusion in which he criticizes the 10 basic assumptions that he claims hold science back, such as materialism, the illusion of consciousness, etc. I used Shelldrake's also controversial theory of Morphic Resonance as a major plot point in A Dancer in the Infinite.

- The name of the fictional Gotham City's hospital for the criminally insane, Arkham Asylum was a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, Mass, site of many of his otherworldly horror works and home of his Miskatonic University. Thus making Batman's enemies like Joker, Scarecrow and Two Face all the creepier!